I should probably tell you that this happens after the second sorceress war and that I own nothing?

Syciara-Lynx: I continued, happy now? Keep reviewing and we'll see about the next chapter. And so that you would feel better... There will be Seifer/Zell, there is no way I could write a FF8 fic without. You just have to be patient, it's not like I could make them just jump each other... Wait! I could, couldn't I?

Miyo Yukimora:Yeah, Zell is so kawaii that even I would find it hard to resist if I ever saw him, and usually I'm so shy that I can't move a muscle towards anyone cute. So how could a brainless hides dragon ever resist him?

Chapter 1: Him? Here?

Lather, scrub, scrub, scrub, rinse, repeat.

The water was falling over his naked body like the summer rain, all warm and soothing against his reddened skin. Scrub, scrub. It was refreshing and cleansing and he hated it. Hated how it made him feel dirty, dirty compared to it's pureness. The spray should have hit his skin heavier like the red hot anger he was feeling. Anger that made him want to scream and pummel down that damn dragon that had dared to violate him like that. He was angry at himself too for not being able to defend himself against it. He was a SeeD, he should damn well have enough strengt to kill one monster. And as if the humiliation wasn't enough, Doctor Kadowaki just had to find out and now he couldn't even forget it as a bad dream, a nightmare. Like anyone could forget about something like that, except maybe Squall, but Zell wasn't a superhero.

Who knew what she now thought about him now… That he was incapable of taking care of himself? She might even tell his friends is she thought that it would be "for the best". And that would make his friends pity him, he would be treated like a baby and they wouldn't let him loose that particular memory, ever. Squall might even go as far as not letting him to go to missions alone anymore, if he cared at all.

/ Damn that dragon! It should be rotting in the hell by now if I hadn't been so fuckin' scared of the thing. /

Zell huffed in annoyance as he started to wash his chest for the umpteenth time. He had already rubbed the skin on his arms and legs raw and now they tingled and burned in some places and stung in the others. Maybe he should buy a softer washcloth so he could use it longer, rub a little harder?

After finishing washing the rest of himself and not breaking the skin anymore, he picked up a bottle of shampoo -strawberry scented- with his right hand as he got rid of the too rough washcloth with the other one. He was so immersed in his cursing of the "hynedamned firebreathing mockery of a reptile" that he didn't notice the lack of the spray of water before he had shampooed his short blond hair and was ready to rinse it.

"Wha? Noo… Not you too, don't do this to me," he pleaded in a awfully pained voice as he looked sadly at the showerhead that wasn't behaving and made the most perfect puppy dog eyes in case the inanimate object was secretly able to see, so it would feel sorry for him and work again. He stood there unmoving and looking retarded for several very long and very waterless minutes before his eyes narrowed in some not so cute and fuzzy emotion. Zell punched the side of the offending item, hard.

There was a nasty croak from the pipes and that alone was enought to indicate that the pipes were better to be left by themselves from now on if no professional help was involved. Then there was loud clattering sounds as the showerhead sputtered few times before it died completely.

"Ack!" there was a loud stream of curses and some names of lesser gods's mentioned as the last spray hit Zell in his eyes and managed to get the shampoo join in the fun too. His eyes stung.

Now even more annoyed blond martial artist gave one final blow to his attacker, that less than a second later lay in a growing puddle of water on the tiled floor. Seeing what he had done, Zell chose to flee from the scene in the bathroom, muttering about lack of money, sucky showers and too "busy" headmasters. On his way out of the bathroom he grabbed two of his fluffy, light blue cotton towels and directed one last loathing look towards the mangled showerhead on the floor and walked into a wall, missing the open doorway next to it. There was more cursing.

-

During the following minutes, and there was many of them, Zell finally somehow managed to gravitate to his kitchen sink. Since he wouldn't go as low as walking to the public showers with his hair already shampooed (people were bound to ask questions about things like that), he did the only thing he could do, he bowed.

Zell had thought that rinsing his hair in the sink would be an relatively easy job, but thanks to the small size and the shape of the sink he was apparently wrong. He couldn't fit his head completely under the water and he kept hittiong his head on the water tap.

Suddenly, when the blond was almost gotten his head into a position were rinsing his blond hair wouldn't be impossible, there was a hard knock on the door. It was a very hard knock, more like someone intending to get through the door without bothering to wait anyone to open it. Zell raised his head.

"Aww, shit!" he shouted as he straightened and brought a hand to rub the back of his head that now had a tiny dent shaped like the mouth of a water tap. Just his luck for someone to want to meet him right now.

"Zell? Are you alright?" / Selphie, should've known. /

"Yeah, I'm fine. Come on in," he said, waving with his hand eventhough Selphie couldn't see it. He winced, he could almost feel a bump forming on his head, a big one. Bump with a dent on it, nice... Please note the sarcasm on your way out.

Soon a door opening could be heard and Selphie bounced in looking at Zell weirdly when he came into her sight, her nunchaku swinging innocently by her side. Ready to whack anyone daring to come too close.

"Soo… Whatcha doing?" she asked, tilting her head to a side in a very cute fashion and peering at Zell who had bent again to continue rinsing his hair while trying not to get too much water on the floor (he had enough of it in his bathroom now).

"I'm washin' my hair. My shitty shower broke (1) and now I gotta go to pester Squall into sending someone to fix it," he told as he finally got his hair shampoo free and rose without banging his head again, missing the disapproving look Selphie shot him, she never liked "nasty" words. Selphie shook her head at him and offered Zell one of his towels, one that he had left on his kitchen counter as she saw him looking for it. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, but anyway... Sadly, I didn't come here to have a chat with you. Squally wanted me to give you this," she handed him a thin folder with his name neatly typed on it. "We have a mission to go to together tomorrow, isn't it just great! We will have so much fun together!" She yelled happilly and squeezed him, not caring about his visible lack of proper clothing and the look on his face as he started aching all over again due to Selphie's hug. He grinned at her despite the pain and his earlier anger, a mission with Selphie sounded like a good way to take his mind off things. He opened his mouth and was about to answer when she continued, making him look like a fish on dry land, "It was nice to talk with you, we really need to hang out more often. I gotta go now, see you tomorrow! Bye!"

He blinked as he acknowledged the fact that the hyper brunette wasn't in the room anymore, lowering his arms that he had lifted to hug the girl back to his sides. As he looked down another realization came to him, he was only wearing a small towel around his hips and another like it on his shoulders to prevent his hair from dripping and wetting the rest of him again. Zell blushed in embarrasment, she had just hugged him and he didn't even have a shirt on him. What if he had dropped the towel that was around his waist? Selphie would never have let him live it down.

Suddenly those thoughts cleared away from his mind as the persistent ache in his muscles chose to remind him about its presense. A new mission, and he wasn't even supposed to be back from his last one yet. Yes, Squall had been busy lately, but this kind of mistakes were a bit too much. He hated it when the new headmaster use his time or didn't have it to think things through. / I should ask him if everything's alright, this is't like him at all... /

The blond huffed loudly and scratched the bridge of his nose. Withdrawing his hand from his face he looked at his nails, he should cut them or he would end up damaging the insides of his gloves or giving himself some nasty scraches in his sleep. A blink, back to his stormy friend. Squall was so secretive nowadays, even more now after the war. He had opened up quite much with Rinoa, but after their break up (that everyone had seen coming) he was back in his shell like some oyster.All his time he spent in his office hiding behind massive piles of different kinds of documents and papers or training in the training centre, alone... Not that he hadn't been a loner with Rinoa too, that had been the official reason for their break up, not that every one believed it. Some said that Rinoa had a secret that he never told Squall and that he had noticed the evasiveness of his girlfriend when they talked about some subjects. Irvine had told Zell that he was sure that either one of them had had a secret lover and thew other had found out. Zell had chosen not to believe anything he said regarding that matter.

What he believed was that fairytale endings never worked in real life, it was never that easy. He shook his head, getting rid of the thought that reminded him of the fact Squall had a more active "social life" than he did. Girls really weren't easy to please... Gah. Very far did he get from the previous thought. He tried to remember what he had thought before Selphie had interrupted him and made him hit his head. The blond frowned as he couldn't recall anything.

He shook his head again, harder this time, and small drops of water spattered all over his floor as he did so, his hair was still wet (and he felt like a dog). Picking up the towel from around his neck he started drying his hair, in vain trying to make sure it was truly dry and wouldn't drip anymore if he put clothes on. With the towel as moist as it had been to begin with he couldn't get them as dry as he wanted to, no matter how much he rubbed the blond locks. Zell shrugged as it didn't matter that much and threw the towel over a back of a chair were there was no danger of the wetness doing anything to his property.Forgetting about the towel he looked around his dorm.

There was absolutely nothing interesting or productive to do. He had read every one of his fighting magazines, even the one his Ma had given him a few days ago, every comic and every book that he owned (and a few that he didn't). He had played through all his video games, the good ones several times, he wasn't hungry (first time in everything, right) so he didn't need to go to the cafeteria and miraculously his room somehow happened to be already clean and tidy. Only thing he could possibly do without leaving his room or boring himself to death was to write a report about his latest mission to Squall, but he didn't feel like he could concentrate enough to do it actually readable. / Maybe I could go to the training centre if I'll make sure I don't over do anything. /

A smile rose to Zell's face as he made his way to a mirror on the wall next to his door and it soon matured into a full grin, teeth and fangs and all. The grin faltered for a second as he tried to get his all too wet and heavy bangs to stand up and failed miserably. His face lit again in a nanosecond and he winked at his reflection, he looked damn good with his hair down.

He had gotten ready to leave and laid his hand on the doorknob when all of a sudden the blond felt like he had forgotten something very important. He had grabbed his gloves and put them on as soon as he chose to go to the training centre, so that couldn't be it... Zell looked down and growled like a pissed off dog.

"Hyne dammit!" he yelled as he stomped all the way to his bedroom to get finally dressed.

-

Few minutes later he emerged from his bedroom fully, but messily dressed in his normal outfit with his blond hair still adorably down, longer locks thrust behind his ears and the rest hanging freely in front of his sky blue eyes. He left on his journey to the training centre, half walking and half running since there was no one to tell him to slow down. All the mess today had gotten him all worked up and now he was ready to kick some pansy monsters ass!

Half a day, a T-rexaur and way too many gratts limped through the training centre's doors covered in blood and some random goo from somewhere he didn't necessarily want to be reminded of. He grumbled something not meant for anyone under eighteen to hear and flicked some of the greenish-yellowish-orange goo off his face and hair, if you excluded his shoes his front was completely covered in it. He had to take another shower now, unless he wanted to stink like someones lunch that had come back up to greet it's eater. Well, only that smell could be expected if you knew what the "goo" on him was... Stupid T-rexaur. Some one (Hyne) up there must really hate him to believe he deserved this. And after that second shower today that he was so going to take he was going back to bed, hungry or not, he had had enough. The sooner this hellish day was over the better.

He was dog tired. He had had a sleepless night, the sleep he had gotten in the infirmary had been too little and hadn't recovered his strenght back to normal, and on top of all that his muscles had begun screaming for him to stop being an idiot and take a rest (his muscles hadn't used as many words to tell him that though). He should have foreseen that and taken some painkillers with him, but that was too late now. Truth to be told, his muscles had started complaining a few hours ago, but the adrenalin had masked the pain so well he hadn't noticed it while fighting, or slaughtering, gratts. He brought one (clean) gloved hand to his eyes and rubbed them, thanks to his sleep deprivation they ached too.

Zell was fairly sure that Dr.Kadowaki wouldn't want him to be putting this much strain on his body yet, but he knew his body better than anyone else and it had been in a worse shape than it had been after last night. / No, thinking bad. Stop thinking about it. /

While Zell was leaning bonelessly against the doors leading to the training centre and busied himself filling his mind with flowers, clear skies, summer heat and cute, fluffy baby animals playing together, he failed to notice the presense of four other people who were now loitering in the hall, waitning for Zell to come back around from anywhere his mind had gone. Soon the blond boy opened his eyes and saw his company. Immidiately his eyes widened in suprise. He loathed these people and even more he loathed the way they seemed very happy to see him here in this condition.

"And so the princess came down from her tower, eh?" a tall red haired male with pale light blue eyes asked him, looking at his friends so they understood to start laughing at his tasteless joke. It wasn't that they were stupid, but none of them had the same sense of humor as the redhead. They just thought that if they all laughted then Zell would start crying or something... Then again, maybe they were stupid.

Zell grinded his teeth, not considering that it could make his fangs shorter and duller (2). The redhead was called Ingervo and the rest were his small band of assholes with no brains, Stenberg, Lishman and Alex something. Alex, a tall brunette, had once before the war been his one of his friends, but after Zell confessed, after many sleepless nights, being unsure about his sexuality the other boy had taken off as fast as possible and joined "better" not-gay people. The idiot probably thought it was contagious or something. Now they were safely in their group milking the fact of Zell being "different" for millions of lame nicknames and even worse jokes.

They were now the official Balamb garden bullies now that Seifer wasn't there to keep them in line with his own taunting. / Kinda makes me want for him to come back. I miss how everything was then. Fucking wannabes. / They would have made him laught if it wasn't for one tiny thing, they were worse that Seifer had ever been. Sure, their intelligence and imagination were nothing like the older blond's, but Seifer had never gotten physical with him unless Zell initiated it, which he usually did when he saw the bastard.

The martial artist glared at the group that was looming over him and tried to push past them so he could get back to his room and away from them. His attampt was halted by gloved hands falling on his shoulders. Apparently not caring about the thick layer of goo and monster blood.

"Oh fuck off!" Zell shouted, almost too loudly as he was getting annoyed again and fast. The present company he was in wasn't welcome at all and he wouldn't have minded if they dissapeared from Balamb for good.

"Aww, don't ya wanna spend some time with us? We'll be very offended if ya don't and that won't be a good thing." Ingervo sneered, showing his teeth in a mockery of a grin. He didn't seem to realize or to care that his friends were now walking back and forth the corridor, looking around nervously. Even Lishman who usually didn't even bat an eye at anything. / What the hell are they nervous about. /

Not getting an answer from the blond who was still wondering about the others the red haired male raised his head in a superior way that Zell thought fit Seifer so much better, and slapped Zell hard on his left cheek, making his head snap to the right. The seams on the leather glove leaving welts on Zell's reddening flesh.

"Answer to me when I talk to ya, bitch!"

Zell's eyes narrowed when he heard what he was called and he had to remind himself about garden's new rules that kept him from attacking the asshole. If there had been no rule and damage to his body stopping him he could have taken them all!

When Squall (3) became the headmaster and commander of Balamb garden he had done many pretty stupid things, one of them being the rule preventing Zell now from defending himself from these bastards effectively. Only blocking attacks was allowed as was "turning the other cheek" (that he would never do) or when and if he complained about them he would be punished too. Besides, there was no way people would believe that a couple of cadets were harassing a SeeD, a hero, unless they were caught doing it. / Damn Squall and his dumbass rules... /

Suddenly without any kind of warning Alex started running away from the scene and the corner he had looked around, followed closely by Stenberg and Lishman as they noticed him taking his leave. Ingervo blinked before looking towards the corner which Alex had abandoned, before running after them, his tail tucked between his long legs and string of obscene words leaving his mouth.

Zell blinked too, how could he not, and then stared after them. He blinked again and stared some more before slowly walking backwards in the opposite direction and around the corner, only to bump into someone. He turned quickly around and got into defensive position before even looking who he had crashed into.

"Did Chicken get some new friends to play with while I was gone?" Seifer smirked down at him, his green eyes flashing. Despite the smirk on his face his posture tense like he wanted to lash at something, preferably something that didn't stain his beloved Hyperion, but anything near his reach would be fine too. Zell blinked again, not even noticing Seifer had spoken. He just stared at his eyes. Green.

There was something different in him now after the war and he didn't mean that he was miserable (like he should be) or anything. On the contrary, if it was possible his eyes were even greener than before and he looked like he was glowing, not visibly, but still. Like he was pregnant (4), not that he had seen a pregnant male, ever. And a sight of a pregnant Seifer would probably drive his eyes into a suicide, it would really be that bad. / Oh Hyne, bad thought again. /

"I know you are gay and that I'm absolutely gorgeous, but Chickie, I'm way out of your class." Seifer commented, preening in front of Zell and relaxing a little. The shorter blond finally got a hang of what was going on and blushed bright red with anger and something else, Seifer having hit a sore spot, opening and closing his mouth like a stranded fish at the same time. He was going to shout at Seifer, but before he managed to get a word out of his mouth the other interrupted him by smirking more and striding away speaking about Ice princesses, meetings and of being late.

"JERK!" Zell shouted after him when he got himself back together and Seifer waved him off as he dissappeared behind another corner. / I wonder what he's doing here. / He thought and brought his hand to his face, on his cheek this time. The rough fabric made it sting.

In another corridor Zell didn't have a chance to see the strange glimmer in the jade green eyes.

-

A day later:

They were right in front of him with nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. He would always find them, there was no way he would let them go without a punishment. Running, running, running away from him, escaping. Not for long, the play was almost over and after the play. He roared.

The scent of their fear was strong it the air, making it so easy for him to follow them. He wouldn't be suprised to find out if one of them had wetted their pants. An acid smell, blood. They must have fallen. Still running.

They were panning something in their terror, looking for the right moment to strike. Too bad they didn't know there would be no right moment. Only a lot of wrong ones that looked right. He gave them one.

They slowed down, foolishly drawing their weapons to attack. His eyes flashed and he let go. A pounce and then there all that there was, was calm, beautiful red and screams.

Tbc...

(1) Damn, I almost wrote that his water broke… I blame that on my school starting again and random mpreg fics, they killed my brain.

(2) Once upon a time I had very cool fangs. Then I killed them.

(3) No, I don't have anything against Squall. cough cough

(4) Now there's a thought. dies from laughing too hard

Author's notes:

Rises back from death Um... Hey again, long time no see, huh? Sorry about the delay, but I just didn't feel like typing this thing onto my computer. I quess I must confess now that I did have this chapter written on paper for like a month? Ever since I posted the first one anyway. There just has been so much going on, school starting, homework and someone/something discouraging me heavily from continuing this, so I would like people to review and tell me what they think and then I am very likely to update more (even if I'm flamed, just to piss people off).

Ps: No, Seifer isn't pregnant now or later in this fic. XD

I would also want to say sorry about the OCs, but they are a necessary evil.